Middle-class salaries.
Over the past 10 years:
- The group earning under ₹5L saw a 4% CAGR
- ₹5L–₹1Cr income group has seen just 0.4% CAGR
- Food prices? Up nearly 80%
- Purchasing power? Cut almost in half
- But spending? Up, funded by credit
This isn’t a collapse.
It’s a well-dressed decline.
You're still flying once a year.
Still buying a phone.
Still paying EMIs.
But you're also skipping the savings.
Delaying the doctor visit.
Doing the mental math in every Zomato checkout.
Meanwhile:
- AI is quietly threatening white-collar jobs
- Political attention stays on welfare funding
- The ultra-rich have grown 7x in a decade
The poor are being supported.
The rich are scaling.
The middle class is just expected to absorb the shock, in silence.
No complaints. No bailouts. Just inflation, EMIs, and quiet pressure.
It’s time we start talking about this group
Not as a vote bank or a spending class,
But as a segment that’s powering the economy, yet getting squeezed out of it.
Do you think it’s just an income issue, or even a money management issue?
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